English Literature

The English literature major leading to a bachelor's degree at Pacific University is designed to teach students to read with imagination and insight, to write with clarity and grace, and to confront and consider the deeper questions of the human experience. The program focuses on the pleasure, the power, the depth and the strange beauty of literary expression.

Students may pursue a major or minor in English literature. Both programs build the skills to write clearly, critically analyze a text and to formulate a response to a piece of writing.

Department graduates have gone on to teach in high schools, universities and overseas; they have become Fulbright Scholars, museum workers, writing specialists, lawyers and publishers. Many graduates go on to graduate programs, including Pacific's master of arts in teaching (MAT) and Pacific's low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing program.

Program Highlights

  • A concentrated, interdisciplinary focus with students working on projects that recognize the interrelationships between English and other disciplines
  • Opportunities to apply writing, editing and production skills working with senior editors who are graduates of Pacific’s Master of Fine Arts program
  • Opportunities to work in conjunction with the theatre department and produce original plays
  • Specialized courses such as Shakespeare, Holocaust literature, literature and disability, and Vietnam literature and film
  • Opportunities to work individually with professors on significant research projects and to present a thesis to the University community on Senior Project Day
  • Opportunities for exciting internships with local publishers as well as Pacific’s Master of Fine Arts program
  • Opportunities to study in Asia, Australia, Europe or South America or to teach English in China

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Courses


In addition to general English courses, English literature majors or minors are offered courses such as Shakespeare, Holocaust literature, literature and disability, and Vietnam literature and film, and classes focusing on other important literary figures such as Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau.

More Information

Fact Sheet

Publishing: Editorial work with Silk Road Literary Review

Writing Tutors: Work in Pacific's Writing Resource Center

Internships: Intern in Pacific's MFA in Writing program